Why has the city of Portland settled the lawsuit brought over the Planned Parenthood buffer zone ordinance – and, by doing so, settled for less than its people are worth?

Each year, almost 7,000 people – male, female, transgender, intersex, black, white, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, Latino, young, old, gay, lesbian, straight … the whole big beautiful spectrum of the city of Portland in vivid color – utilize the services that Planned Parenthood’s local medical center offers.

Planned Parenthood is not an abortion clinic. Only just under 3 percent of its resources are allocated to abortion services. And yet that’s the grim picture painted by its opposition.

In reality: Planned Parenthood provides nearly 400,000 Pap tests and 500,000 breast exams each year, critical services in detecting and preventing the development of cancers.

In the same year, 1.5 million individuals are offered educational programs about sexual health, 700,000 tests are performed for HIV, and 4.5 million tests and treatments are provided for sexually transmitted infections. Five million men, women and teenagers will be provided these services worldwide.

While dozens of individuals stand outside the doors of this clinic every Friday, busy throwing slurs, threats and darkness at the individuals who’ve chosen not to condemn themselves to a life of ignorance, cancer, disease – and, yes, unwanted pregnancy – Planned Parenthood is busy changing and saving lives.

Almost 10 percent of our city’s population takes advantage of these services. These people do not deserve harassment. They do not deserve verbal violence. They do not deserve to be spit at, yelled at, told that they will go to hell, that they are sinners, murderers and a plethora of other sticks and stones whose damages will remain, no matter what a childhood rhyme taught us.

What they do deserve is support.

They deserve the loving arms of this city to wrap them up and tell them that it is OK that they need help – that they are safe, can be taken care of, are good and will be OK. They deserve to know that this resource exists for them.

How many of our citizens feel too intimidated to use this resource? How many are lacking the education and the support to pursue their sexual health? And how are the opponents of these services affecting the individuals seeking them?

Why is the Constitutional amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech used to defend what is, in its essence, bullying? Why is the freedom of choice exercised to pursue one’s own well-being not honored as the same right?

Patrick Henry said, in the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, “it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian … love and charity towards one another.” If the individuals protesting outside Planned Parenthood in Portland are demanding their freedom to assemble and express their religion freely and without imposition, why is the focus not on love and charity – to love others without condition or qualification?

For those of us who do not share the Christian faith, where is the compassion? Where is the understanding that the exercise of freedom in actions of hate – in the history of this country and the history of the world – has never once been of benefit?

I want to live in a city where our health and well-being are defended. I want to live in a city where the men, women and adolescents who are seeking these services – in a time when health insurance is a behemoth of an issue and, for some, simply not available – feel safe and are respected for asserting their own agency and making their own choices.

While I support the advocacy of one’s own beliefs and religions and the necessity to freely express oneself, I want to live in a city where the exercise of freedom does not come at the price of its hateful imposition on others.

I love Portland. And, with that love, I beg the city to reconsider this attitude the next time a situation comes up in which it is put in a position where there is a choice to defend these citizens who are in need, or to succumb to the pressure of legal fees, litigation and months spent in court. How many lives would the city be changing? How many lives would it be saving?

Next time, I ask Portland not to settle. We are worth more.

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